JOHN H. ANDERSON was appointed to Engine Company 2 on February 8, 1873 as Driver with Engine Company 2, his brother, Isaac Anderson had appointed to the Camden Fire Department on November 6, 1872 to also  serve with Engine Company 2. Both men were dismissed when stoker Henry Grosscup and driver George Leibecke were reappointed on April 8, 1873.

The Anderson brothers had been living at 34 North 5th Street during their time in service with the Fire Department. Isaac Anderson had worked as a teamster, John Anderson had been working on a farm, according to Fire Department records.

Isaac and John H. Anderson appear to be the sons of Isaac and Margaret Anderson, who were living in Camden's North Ward as early as September of 1849, when John H. Anderson was born. The Andersons had come to Camden shortly before the birth of after the birth of Isaac, in Pennsylvania in 1847. The family was still living in Camden's North Ward in 1860. That year's census lists the following children at home, James, 17; Isaac 13; John, 10; and Margaret, 4; another daughter, Sarah Jane, had passed away during the 1850s. When the Census was taken in 1860 the Andersons lived two doors away from lawyer Abraham Browning.

The 1870 Census indicated that Isaac Anderson had gone out into the world. He was then boarding at the home of George Mapes,  an engineer on one of the ferry boats that plied the river between Camden and Philadelphia, and was working selling charcoal. Where John Anderson was at the time of the 1870 Census is not clear. Fire Department records indicate that they were both living at 34 North 5th Street in late 1872 and early 1873. 

The June 1880 federal Census shows John Anderson living in "East Camden" with his wife Elizabeth and children Lizzie K, 5; Isaac W., 3; and John H., one month. John Anderson was then working in a brickyard. After leaving the Fire Department, brother Isaac Anderson went to work for the Pennsylvania Railroad as a brakeman.. He was terribly injured in October of 1873. When the census was taken, the Andersons lived a few doors away from John Durkin and his family. John Durkin had been a member of the Camden Fire Department with the Hook & Ladder Company prior to the Anderson brother's appointments.

John H. Anderson lived and worked in East Camden through the 1880s and 1890s. He was living at 2010 Cooper Street when the 1894-1895 City Directory was compiled. John H. Anderson appears to have died in Pennsauken on June 24, 1898.